Anthony Albanese’s Qatar Airways admission raises more questions over Catherine King’s decision

Illustration: Emilia Tortorella

Anthony Albanese has now admitted he was not involved in the decision to block the bid from Qatar Airways for more flights into Australia, and held no discussions on the subject with Qantas.

On one level this puts the Prime Minister in the clear – but, on another, it raises more questions about how this decision was taken, why it was so tightly held and what advice the government received on the Qatar Airways bid.

When did Albanese find out that Transport Minister Catherine King had rejected the Qatari application for more flights? Who informed him? Should he have been consulted? Who else in government was consulted? Did the Department of Infrastructure and Transport support or oppose the Qatar application?

It appears very few people in government were actually in the know and The Australian has already reported that key cabinet ministers were kept in the dark.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers, Foreign Minister Penny Wong, Trade Minister Don Farrell and Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil have all failed to confirm they were consulted.

Given the Prime Minister was in discussions about the Qatar Airways application with Virgin chief executive Jayne Hrdlicka on July 13 without knowing it was no longer a live issue, the inescapable conclusion is the government decision making process was simply chaotic and confused.

The failure to provide clearer responses on the Qatar Airways bid now seems less a cover-up about a possible “sweetheart deal” to protect Qantas and more the result of simple incompetence. There were no clear answers because most senior government ministers didn’t know what had happened.

This is an embarrassing revelation for Labor given the political heat focused on the Qatar decision and the obvious interest from travellers who want to know why they are not paying lower airfares.

The government’s relationship with Qantas will come back into focus if it becomes clear that the advice from Catherine King’s department was to accept the Qatar Airways proposal. If the government ignored advice to green light the proposal, then the claims of a “sweetheart deal” with the national carrier will take on a new potency.

With a Senate inquiry now due to report back by October 9 on the Qatar decision, this issue is guaranteed to roll-on for at least another month and serve as a distraction from the government’s agenda while inflicting more political damage on Labor.

There is also one key question which remains unclear: why?

No clear answer has yet been given explaining why the Qatar Airways decision was taken although several reasons have been suggested.

The most consistent is the idea that the Qatari application went against the ‘national interest’. This answer is unsatisfactory and the public should be given a clearer reason.

Now the Prime Minister has revealed he was not involved, greater scrutiny will also fall on Catherine King who made the decision on July 10.

King will be under pressure to reveal who she consulted both within and outside of government. But perhaps one of the most pertinent questions will be why she consulted so few people, including the Prime Minister himself.

These are now issues which will be left to the Senate inquiry to explore.